The School of Art and Design History and Theory is pleased to present a lecture by fashion curator and academic Judith Clark, whose Judith Clark Gallery in London, was ground breaking in new fashion curation from 1998 through 2002. She has curated major exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, ModeMuseum, Antwerp, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, and Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Forthcoming exhibitions include The Eye Has to Travel, at the Museo Fortuny in Venice. She is Reader in the Field of Fashion and Museology and Co-Director of MA Fashion Curation at the University of the Arts, London.

The Dictionary and the Gallery: On Exhibition-Making
February 23, 2011, 6:00pm
Theresa Lang Student Center
55 W 13th St, Room 202
New York NY 10011

By exploring the curation of two exhibitions, The Concise Dictionary of Dress and Spectres: When Fashion Turns Back, Judith Clark will discuss the interpretation of fashion’s history and how she displays the dress of the past in contemporary contexts. Spectres: When Fashion Turns Back included labyrinths and optical devices to investigate the lineage between past and present fashions. The Concise Dictionary of Dress, set within Blythe House, the Victoria & Albert Museum offsite storage facility, presented installations informed by a series of definitions composed by psychoanalyst Adam Phillips in evocative and unexpected spaces. “In fashion,” Professor Clark says, “a monument can only ever be a monument to a moment.” In this lecture, she will discuss her commemoration of fashion’s past moments while examining its relationship to the present.

For more information about Judith Clark and her projects, please visit: http://www.judithclarkcostume.com/